Chemical vapor deposition growth of continuous monolayer antiferromagnetic CrOCl films

TL;DR

This paper reports the successful chemical vapor deposition synthesis of stable, high-quality monolayer CrOCl films, a rare two-dimensional antiferromagnetic material, enabling further exploration of its electronic and magnetic properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel CVD method for producing continuous monolayer CrOCl films, expanding the toolkit for 2D antiferromagnetic materials.

Findings

CrOCl monolayer films exhibit high air stability.

The morphology can be tuned from nanosheets to flower-like structures.

The Néeel temperature of CrOCl is approximately 14 K.

Abstract

The discovery of two-dimensional magnetic materials has provided an ideal platform for exploring physical phenomena in the two-dimensional limit. However, intrinsic two-dimensional antiferromagnetic materials have been rarely reported, limiting systematic studies of their electronic properties. The discovery of novel intrinsic two-dimensional antiferromagnets and the development of robust synthesis strategies, therefore, remain significant challenges. Here, we report the chemical vapor deposition synthesis of CrOCl monolayer films and nanosheets that exhibit excellent air stability. The CrOCl morphology is tunable, ranging from two-dimensional nanosheets to three-dimensional flower-like structures, with lateral sizes ranging from several microns to continuous monolayer films. Structural characterization confirms the materials composition and high crystalline quality. Furthermore, magnetic measurements, supported by theoretical calculations, reveal a N\'eel temperature for CrOCl of ~14 K. This work provides a reliable route for preparing two-dimensional antiferromagnetic materials.